Emmy Category Review: Outstanding TV Movie

We'll be investigating a couple handfuls of Emmy categories before the main event. Here's Juan Carlos Ojano...

Kerry Washington and Steven Pasquale in "American Son"

The competition between HBO and Netflix is rarely embodied as well as it in this category for 2020. The giant streamer dominates this category with four nominees, but it's the long-standing Emmy-devouring cable network that could prove the spoiler. This year’s slate of nominees include a film festival acquisition, an interactive film, an episode of an anthology series, a “television event”, and an epilogue to an Emmy-winning drama series. (The last three winners were all episodes of the anthology series Black Mirror. They were Bandersnatch in 2019, USS Callister in 2018, and San Junipero in 2017.)

Let's consider each nominee...

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Emmy Watch: "Made-for-Television Movie"

by Abe Fried-Tanzer

El Camino

The Emmy race for made-for-television movie hasn’t exactly been the most interesting category in recent years. This category was merged with Best Miniseries in 2011 for three years, during which only six of the nominees were TV movies, and then it was unmerged. Actors in made-for-TV movies still compete with actors in mini-series though in shared categories. Last year marked the first time that not a single acting nominee came from a TV movie. That will definitely not happen this year given the quality of the contenders...

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Streaming Roulette May: Circus of Books, Song of the Sea, Etc...

by Nathaniel R

If you're new to the site this is how we share new streaming offerings for the month. We select a handful or two of titles and just randomly hit a place on the scroll bar to see what the film looks like - no cheating.  Ready? Let's play...

I'm sorry it's just upsetting to me to hear that.

Circus of Books (2020) on Netflix
Sometimes expectations can get too high when you hear nothing but raves (including one right here). This documentary about nice Jewish parents running a gay porn shop, is a good film and you absolutely should watch it, don't misunderstand. But the clumsy hand-held camera took us out of the picture way too often. It's curious to land on this image of the daughter/director  because though the scene is moving and the movie wouldn't have been possible without the insider feel, we kept wanting more context from/about the adult children to better illuminate the family drama... which isn't really a sidebar topic, though it often feels that way.

More after the jump including The Half of It, and all-too familiar rants about Angela Bassett's career, and Oscar's Best Animated Feature category...

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Review: Bad Education

by Tony Ruggio

Filmmaker Cory Finley is fast becoming an auteur. That much is clear, and more, when watching his second directorial effort Bad Education, a great film unfortunately relegated to the streaming fringes of HBO. A film this good would’ve been poised to make a bigger splash with Netflix or Amazon, as well as contend for Oscars over Emmys.

Hugh Jackman gives the best performance of his career as Frank Tassone, a Long Island area school district superintendent who in the early aughts, along with district business manager Pamela Gluckin (Allison Janney) and others, embezzled millions of dollars from school funds to support their lavish lifestyles... 

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The 2019 Team Experience Awards

It's that time again: the Team Experience Awards! Before Nathaniel starts dishing out the Film Bitch Awards you've all been waiting for, the rest of us at The Film Experience compile our ballots for our favorites of the year in film. This year, Greta Gerwig's Little Women leads the mentions with 11 nominations - but it's Bong Joon-ho's Parasite that is our ultimate runaway favorite. As usual, our ballot features some major divergences from Oscar and some unheralded favorites. Look out for a majority female Best Director lineup, a different double acting nominee than the one Oscar chose, and a few contemporary surprises in the design categories...

Best Picture

1. Parasite
2. Portrait of a Lady on Fire
3. Marriage Story
4. Little Women
5. Pain and Glory
6. Atlantics
7. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
8. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
9. The Lighthouse
10. Hustlers
    

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